Braves’ homestand ends with rainout

The Braves’ scheduled game against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night was rained out after about a 1 ½-hour wait.

The game was rescheduled for Aug. 13 at 1:35 p.m. as part of a day/night split doubleheader. The second game will be played at the previously scheduled time of 7:35 p.m.

Already facing an upcoming heavy stretch of games, Braves manager Brian Snitker wanted badly to play Wednesday rather than to be faced with tacking on another game when the Marlins return to Atlanta Aug. 13-15.

“We really need to play this game, I think, and not get any more backed up,” Snitker said about two hours before Wednesday’s scheduled game time. “I think the biggest thing we need to do is try to do everything we can to play.”

Snitker had looked at the radar in late afternoon and thought he saw an opening to possibly squeeze in the game.

“I’m an amateur meteorologist,” he said with a laugh, “but looking on there, it looks good – eventually. If we have to sit and wait a while, then we do.”

But a steady rain continued, and the game never got underway. And with a day-night doubleheader now scheduled for Aug. 13, the Braves will play 22 games in 20 days from next Tuesday through Aug. 26.

The Braves open a four-game series against the Mets in New York on Thursday.

A homestand that began with three consecutive losses to the Dodgers ended with three consecutive wins (one over the Dodgers and two over the Marlins) and a rainout. The wins, along with Sean Newcomb’s near no-hitter on Sunday and the acquisitions of relief pitcher Brad Brach on Sunday, outfielder Adam Duvall on Monday and starting pitcher Kevin Gausman on Tuesday, seemed to lift the Braves’ outlook.

Before the current three-game winning streak, the Braves had lost 13 of their previous 18 games.

“We always talk about in sports that winning cures a lot,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said Wednesday afternoon. “I think Newcomb stepping up on Sunday definitely helped everyone around here because at the end of the day when you’re going through a little bit of a skid or something like that, you can rely a lot on starting pitching to make a statement.

“I think it’s kind of bled over into these (past two) games and it’s … refreshing,” Swanson said. “We’ve always had belief in this team and everything, but being able to add the pieces that we did, we feel we’re really set up for a good spot. I think any point when you’re able to improve your team, it means a lot. Everyone feels that energy that we are getting better.”

The Braves remain ½ game out of first place in the National League East. The division-leading Phillies were idle Wednesday.

Tickets from the Braves’ rained-out game will be honored at the first game of the Aug. 13 doubleheader for the same seats. Fans unable to attend that game can exchange their paid tickets for any remaining 2018 regular-season home game, provided the exchange is made before the rescheduled game, the Braves said.